A Cultural and Linguistic Anthropological Analysis of Youth Language Socialization

青少年语言社会化的文化和语言人类学分析

• 批准号: 1323769
• 负责人: Shalini Shankar
• 金额: $ 17.24万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1323769&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cultural; Linguistic; Anthropological; Analysis; Youth

Dr. Shalini Shankar of Northwestern University will study child language socialization through the exploration of contests that are focused on ritualized learning. This project will employ cultural and linguistic anthropological methodologies to investigate how ritualized learning contests contribute to processes of child socialization, language commodification, and the production of identities and racial imagery in the contemporary United States. It addresses these questions: 1) How do children and parents participate together in socialization rituals learn specialized ways of speaking, relevant vocal and visualization techniques, and embodied practices to excel at spelling bees? 2) How has the increased commercialization of these contests through corporate branding and prime-time broadcasting transformed this language education exercise into a mass mediated, sport-like spectacle? 3) How are the youth who succeed subject to scrutiny and characterizations that contribute to overall meanings about immigration, race, and the English language? Data will be collected via observations, audio recordings, video taping, and interviews: at three organizations that produce these events the latter two of which are exclusively for South Asian Americans; at select regional and national events; and in childrens' (ages 6-14) homes to document their preparation practices and intergenerational relationships. Interviews will be conducted with children, their parents, coaches, spelling bee organizers, pronouncers, judges, corporate sponsors, and media broadcasters. Data will be analyzed to consider the significance of the everyday acquisition and on-stage execution of socialization to broader debates of socioeconomics, language, race, and media.The project will contribute to several contemporary anthropological debates about language and socioeconomic change, by offering broader insights about the commodification of the English language and new roles for English in globalizing economies; youth, language, and socialization, by exploring new perspectives on new paradigms of child learning and socialization; and media, race, and language, by providing fine-grained empirical data about how broadcast media and racial ideologies coalesce in the reinforcement of stereotypes about race, immigration, and English language standardization. Project broader impacts will occur as follows: 1) several scholarly articles and a monograph; 2) at least two articles written in clear, jargon-free prose aimed at K-12 educators and the general public; 3) the on-site methodological training of undergraduate and graduate students; the PI will guide students in conducting ethnographic observations and interviews with subjects of different ages; 4) the creation of a free, child-friendly, website developed from project data; this educational intervention will address inequities in preparation materials and adult mentoring by advancing learning techniques, including a "tutor" function that will quiz children when adults are unavailable; and 5) the use of recordings, transcripts, and other project data for linguistic and cultural anthropology teaching and mentoring.

西北大学的Shalini Shankar博士将通过探索专注于仪式化学习的竞赛来研究儿童语言社会化。该项目将采用文化和语言人类学的方法来研究如何仪式化的学习比赛有助于儿童社会化，语言商品化，以及在当代美国的身份和种族形象的生产过程。它涉及这些问题：1）孩子和父母如何共同参与社会化仪式，学习专门的说话方式，相关的声乐和可视化技术，以及在拼字比赛中表现出色的具体实践？2)这些竞赛通过企业品牌和黄金时段广播而日益商业化，是如何将这种语言教育活动转变为一种大众媒介的体育奇观的？3)成功的年轻人如何受到审查和描述，从而对移民、种族和英语产生整体意义？将通过观察、录音、录像和访谈收集数据：在制作这些活动的三个组织，其中后两个专门针对南亚裔美国人;在选定的地区和国家活动;在儿童（6-14岁）家中记录他们的准备做法和代际关系。采访将与儿童，他们的父母，教练，拼字比赛组织者，发音，法官，企业赞助商和媒体广播公司进行。数据将被分析，以考虑社会化的日常习得和舞台上的执行对社会经济学，语言，种族和媒体的更广泛的辩论的重要性。该项目将有助于一些当代人类学关于语言和社会经济变化的辩论，通过提供更广泛的见解关于英语的商品化和英语在全球化经济中的新角色;青年，语言和社会化，通过探索儿童学习和社会化的新范式的新视角;和媒体，种族和语言，通过提供关于广播媒体和种族意识形态如何在种族，移民和英语标准化的刻板印象的强化中合并的细粒度经验数据。项目更广泛的影响将如下：1）几篇学术文章和一本专著; 2）至少两篇以清晰、无专业术语的散文撰写的文章，针对K-12教育工作者和公众; 3）现场方法论培训本科生和研究生; PI将指导学生对不同年龄的对象进行民族志观察和采访;（4）根据项目数据建立一个免费的、方便儿童的网站;这一教育干预措施将通过提高学习技巧，包括在成人不在时对儿童进行测验的“辅导员”功能，解决准备材料和成人辅导方面的不平等问题; 5）使用录音、文字记录和其他项目数据进行语言和文化人类学教学和指导。